Wizards of the Coast OGL 1.1 / Dungeons & Dragons Licensing Controversy

About

Wizards of the Coast OGL 1.1 or Dungeons & Dragons Licensing Controversy refers to the rumored changes to the current active Open Gaming License (OGL) that many Dungeons and Dragons creators use to create content involving the game. Wizards of the Coast's current OGL (1.0) allows game developers permission to modify, copy or redistribute certain content designed for its games, such as game mechanics. In early January 2023, a leak of the purported changes to the OGL 1.0 version that would restrict many of these permissions led to a massive fan backlash against the company despite not officially being confirmed or activated.

Background

On January 5th, 2023, Linda Codega of Gizmodo^[1] reported on a leak that a new OGL (Open Gaming License) was in the works at Wizards of the Coast, which would have a massive impact on the entire fan base and wider content of Dungeons & Dragons — specifically stating that it would significantly restrict the content allowed to be used by third parties and require anyone making money under the license to report products to directly to the company.

In the article, Codega stated the 1.1 version of the OGL "significantly restricts the kind of content allowed and requires anyone making money under the license to report their products to Wizards of the Coast directly." It also noted that the original license was a "relatively short document" under 900 words, while the new version is "over 9,000 words long."

According to Gizmodo and Codega, OGL 1.1 also "addresses new technologies like blockchain and NFTs" and "takes a strong stance against bigoted content, explicitly stating the company may terminate the agreement if third-party creators publish material that is 'blatantly racist, sexist, homophobic, trans-phobic, bigoted or otherwise discriminatory.'"

That same day on January 5th, TikToker Scene_Four^[2] then uploaded a TikTok video explaining what an "OGL" is, what the original OGL did and the history behind it, as well as lightly delving into what the new OGL proposed changes would mean. The video earned over 60,000 views and 2,500 likes in five days (shown below).

Online Reactions

Reactions across multiple social media platforms to the leaks of the newly reported OGL were immediate, with numerous DnD fans expressing their anger and disappointment at both Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro (the parent company of WOTC) for purportedly pushing for this new OGL and the drastic changes that would have to be made with little time to prepare.

For example, on January 5th, 2023, Twiiter^[5] user mustangsart tweeted a response to learning about the OGL changes with an Our Expectations for You Were Low meme, receiving over 4,600 likes and 570 retweets in a week (seen below).

On January 10th, 2023, YouTuber Cr1tikal made a video^[3] talking about the proposed changes and how damaging they could be from both a player base trust perspective, as well as having people leave the brand entirely, getting over 2 million views in 20 hours (shown below).

Memes about the situation started to appear online in the following days as more people became aware of the controversy, with the /r/dndmemes subreddit becoming a particular hotspot for memes revolving around the OGL and what some of the player base was considering as far as it's next move. Several memes were made on the sub about switching to alternative table-top formats, such as Pathfinder, or outright pirating and stealing Dungeons and Dragons off the principal alone. One such example was posed by Redditor Nephophobe^[4] on January 11th, garnering over 8,5000 upvotes in 28 hours for their It's Always Morally Correct meme (shown below).

The controversy over the rumored OGL 1.1 leak also spread to platforms like TikTok in mid-January 2023, with numerous TikTokers posting reactions, explainers or general discussions about the news (examples shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References